428 ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES. 



order is foui^l iu a letter addressed to the director of tbe museum, num- 

 ber 02, ill the file of papers relatiug to the trausactions of the I. and E. 

 Museum for the year 1814.) Professor De Yecchi himself refers to this 

 suppression in the memorial before mentioned, in speaking of the 

 methods of observing with reflecting instruments. Professor De 

 VECcni never returned to his office as instructor in the observatory. 



In the letter of Prince Easpiglioli to the director of the museum it 

 was also stated: "I think it well to inform you that Father Gaetano 

 DEL Eicco has been invited to take charge of the preservation of the 

 astronomical instruments," which, iu consequence, were received from 

 the professor himself, and held from June, 1814, to May 17, 1818, on which 

 day, having passed from this life, Father Gaetano del Eicco was suc- 

 ceeded by Father Inghirami, professor of astronomy in the Ximeniauo 

 Observatory. 



At this point it is necessary to observe that the observatory of the 

 Eoyal Museum was always an entirely distinct institution from that of 

 San Giovannino, some time designated degli Scolopi, the latter having 

 been founded by Father Leonardo Ximenes, Jesuit, from whom it de- 

 rived the name of Ximeniano, which it retains and by which if is at this 

 time especially distinguished. 



Father Inghirami held the position until the 7th of October of the 

 same year, when, by desire of the Count, he had added to his other du- 

 ties those of Director of the Museum. 



From 1814 to 1825 we find no document which proves the presence 

 of an astronomer; it remained wholly inactive for a perio<l of about 

 eleven years. 



In July, 1825, Prof. LuiGi Pons, of Marseille, was appointed, and suc- 

 ceeded in 1837 by Prof. GiovANi Battesta Amici, of Modena, who 

 held the directorship of the observatory until 1859, when he was re- 

 tired on account of extreme old age. Although all the duties of the 

 ofifice since 1852 had been performed by Prof. G. B. Donati, he did not 

 succeed to the official title of director until 1804, a year after the death 

 of Professor Amici. 



At that time DoNATi conceived the idea of erecting a new observa- 

 tory in the vicinity of Florence; the old institution, in a central part of 

 the town, no longer meeting the requirements of astronomical study, 

 and not being large enough to hold the large and excellent equatorial 

 constructed by his predecessor. Aided in this bold enterprise by the 

 influence and support of the municipal, provincial, and state authority, 

 and by securing the interest of King Victor Emanuel, Professor 

 DoNATi, in October, 1872, was able. to inaugurate the new observatory 

 on the Calle d'Arcetri, a little removed from the house, where, two hun- 

 dred and thirty years before, Galileo had ended the labors of his life. 



To the new institution was transferred all the scientific material be- 

 longing to the Department of Astronomy, and the place occupied by it 

 in the observatory was devoted exclusively to meteorological observa- 



